Mountain Lion Found With Teeth Growing Out Of Its Head

A hunter tracking an aggressive mountain lion made a startling discovery when the cat's body turned up with an extra set of teeth on top of its head, wildlife officials said.

A photo of the deformed male juvenile, bagged outside Preston, Idaho, was released Thursday by the state’s Fish and Game department.

"The mountain lion had an unusual deformity -- fully-formed teeth and what appears to be small whiskers were growing out of hard fur-covered tissue on the left side of the animal's forehead,” the department said in a release Friday.

"Idaho Fish and Game cannot definitively explain why this abnormality developed on this mountain lion,” the department said.

One possible explanation for the teeth is that they could be the remains of a conjoined twin that died in its mother's womb and was absorbed into the surviving fetus. The deformity could also be a rare teratoma tumor, the department wrote.

“These kinds of tumors are composed of tissue from which teeth, hair, and even fingers and toes can develop,” it said. “Biologists from the southeast region of Idaho Fish and Game have never seen anything like this particular deformity before."

          

Source:
Hufflington Post